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Friday, November 23, 2007

Blackmore's Night-Paris Moon

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SPV
2007

Despite my love for Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar playing I have avoided this project until now. I avoided it because my fear was that it would be rather dull and pretentious and this live DVD/CD didn’t do much to disspell that fear. I do believe that absolutely any form of music can be played with energy and integrity and those factors go along ways. However any type of music can be dull and tedious if not enough is put into it. I think Blackmore’s Night falls into the latter category. There is no doubt that Mr. Blackmore still has the talent and his fingers still move rather nimbly on the strings of his instrument. Yet fire in a musician doesn’t just come from the body, it comes from the heart of from the spirit and this act is lacking spirit in a major way. Vocalist Candice Night has some range, but her performance really seems to range passable down to being rather empty. I think renaissance music could be done well if the act just went after it and the music was the goal. Aside from a lack of fire the other major problem is that they seem so self-aware. Everything just seemed rather stilted and unnatural as renaissance style was often plugged rather into primarily uninspired and hollow songs. Candice Night seemed to blush and be so proud of this music that I think she would have bowed on every single song if she could have. One thing Ritchie Blackmore had never previously been was dull, not even when Rainbow started becoming pop yet this DVD was sorely testing my concentration. For technical matters I would say the picture and sound quality are fine. If you like renaissance music then there really has to be something out there better than this and Blackmore fans will just have to resort to pulling out their old Deep Purple and Rainbow albums.

3 comments:

  1. Linda and I set the over/under for this one at 15 minutes. I took the under and won. It's gonna be a chore to get through. The only thing I can say for it is that at least it seems to be something they have some passion for unlike Sting's ego-driven renaissance joke that he recently released.

    Candice Night played the Fairie Festival in nearby Glen Rock, PA last May. How weird is that?

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  2. bob-It was a strain to make it through.
    Was Candice Night opening for a puppet show? Somehow watching this DVD had me picturing Ritchie Blackmore in sort of a Spinal Tap kind of situation.

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  3. I'll confess to occasionally listening to Under A Violet Moon as a guilty pleasure. But you've nailed it - this stuff's worst failing isn't that it is twee, or superficial, or anything - just that it's dull.

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